Woman sues police after they find cannabis plants in her house during raid

A woman handed a suspended jail term for growing cannabis is suing cops for wrecking her house during a raid.

Spinster Julia Rawson, who has a brain tumour, says that she was growing the cannabis plants for pain relief.

The plants were found when officers looking for guns raided her semi-detached house in Intake, Sheffield, in September 2012.

No guns were found, but she claims that the damage to her house has they left her with a £31,000 repair bill.

Ms Rawson was handed a nine month jail term suspended for 12 months after pleading guilty to growing the 21 seedlings which could produce cannabis with a street value of £21,000

But she says when police raided her semi-detached house in Intake, Sheffield, they wrecked the house leaving a £31,000 repair bill.

Now the 59-year-old spinster is locked in a bitter legal dispute with South Yorkshire Police, after she made a county court claim for compensation.

Police - who deny any wrongdoing - acted on a tip-off to Crimestoppers that Ms Rawson, who lives alone, was an gun-runner trying to sell a cache of four handguns and ammunition.

When officers raided her home in September 2012 they found no handguns - but instead discovered a factory of cannabis plants germinating in a bedroom.

If fully grown, the plants could have yielded drugs with a street value of £21,000.

I am certainly not a firearms dealer

Julia Rawson

But Ms Rawson claims the presence of cannabis plants did not justify the actions of police officers, who she says ripped out her bath and toilet, causing her home to flood and ceilings to collapse.

She says 16 officers ransacked her home, destroying furniture and smashing ornaments, in their fruitless search for firearms.

She said: "They completely wrecked my house. They were throwing things out of upstairs windows, smashing ornaments to make sure nothing was hidden inside, and they removed the bath and toilet without turning off the water, so the place flooded and the ceilings came down.

"I lost everything - they put their feet through my sofas, they had no respect for anything.I had a brain tumour at the time and still do, and this has made me very ill.

"If they had checked out their so-called intelligence first, they would have realised I have never been in trouble with the police before - and I am certainly not a firearms dealer."

In papers supplied to county court, she describes the officers involved in the raid as 'pack animals'.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: "Civil proceedings brought by Ms Rawson are ongoing and the force denies liability.

"South Yorkshire Police and the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner have written to Ms Rawson on several occasions following her complaint about the search.

"Ms Rawson's complaint is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Force's Professional Standards Department."